Success stories mark IGNITE ACC rollout

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Thomas J. Doscher
  • Air Combat Command Public Affairs
LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. (ACCNS) --  Elements of the IGNITE ACC campaign are making a difference in the way Air Combat Command personnel do their jobs.

ACC offices are making more use of the collaborative tools to speed up processes and cut down on wasted time.

The Air Force munitions community took a step forward by using IGNITE ACC's shared Web-based work space to develop and implement a conventional and nuclear munitions command and control capability that facilitates near real-time updates, retrieval and sharing of data at any given time or location.

"By using custom lists, discussion boards and document libraries that can be accessed worldwide for updating, downloading and viewing, this concept eliminated many of the typical stovepipes of information and planning within various levels of organizations and commands," said Master Sgt. Linda Hughes, Headquarters ACC Logistics Directorate Munitions Division. "Munitions command and control environments enable global visibility of munitions command and control from flight to headquarters level. MC2 has streamlined unit reporting to major commandsand provides leadership with a near real-time decision making tool."

The ACC armament community is also moving toward a single-point site for mishaps, monthly reporting and total force collaboration, and the ACC Munitions Division is continuing to evaluate additional avenues to create a maintenance management streamlining tool, Sergeant Hughes added.

The command's logistics directorate isn't the only directorate finding ways to tailor the online tool to their mission. Headquarters ACC Requirements Directorate, or A8, is using the program to cut down on wasted time and bandwidth. Previously, executive officers sent out daily announcements via e-mail to all A8 personnel. By issuing them via shared workspace, less bandwidth is needed.

"A8 has over 500 personnel," said Jane Cerdenola, ACC A8 webmaster. "With all of these e-mails sent out with attachments up to 10 MB each, that adds up to a lot of bandwidth usage. With SharePoint, we were able to create lists or document libraries for all of these e-mail categories to reduce this e-mail traffic. Now, whoever is interested in each subject simply has to set up an alert to go to them when that list is updated."
Ms. Cerdenola said the new process saves bandwidth and time.

"Even though they are still receiving e-mails, they are much smaller in size, therefore reducing bandwidth usage," she explained. "Also, not all 500 people are receiving the e-mails, but only those who are interested or do not check the list or library daily."
The requirements directorate has also found ways to save time by sharing meeting slides rather than hurriedly forwarding slides to different divisions just before a meeting. Taskers that ask for concurrence are posted to their shared workspace's document library where various members can coordinate on the document.

"Taskers of this type used to be emailed to each division in A8, now the documents are posted, and members check in once a week to see if their coordination is required," said Derek White, ACC A8. "The use of SharePoint has made things more efficient by not only helping to centralize events, but the work products are stored in relation to the event and reduce the amount of searching that used to be required."